The Iris
by cooldragon87
Summary: The Iris is the last Time Lady in existence. She used to travel the Universe with her best friend The Doctor but now travels alone. One night while tracking down Autons she meets a young woman named Rose Tyler. She asks Rose to be her first ever companion. What adventures will these two women get up to while travelling in the TARDIS?
1. Rose: Meeting Rose

Rose: Meeting Rose

Notice: I picture my character, The Iris, to look like actress Amanda Seyfried.

I should have known it was the Autons that were causing this new mess. The Autons are metamorphic android robots; artificial life forms which are essentially life sized plastic dummies that were animated by the Nestene Consciousness. Though they were not the only creatures created by the Nestene Consciousness they were the most common and the most identifiable to all species.

I had tracked the signal down to this department store called Henrik's in central London down to the basement. I had passed a body, a poor soul that had a badge that said 'Chief Electrician' had been had been killed so I knew they were somewhere near.

"Wilson? Wilson!" I heard this young woman shouting. Isn't it supposed to be near closing time for most shops? What is she doing down here? She could get killed and it's very likely that she doesn't want to be killed. Also, I suppose that she doesn't know of the danger that's down here and so won't be in a hurry to leave since it seems she's looking for someone.

I follow her voice to see a blond woman hunched near a storage area. I grab her hand tightly and said "Run". I couldn't let her get killed, especially knowing what I am going to do next.

I pull the woman through the basement as the Autons follow us and into a lift. As the lift doors are closing an Auton puts its arm through, just stopping the door closing, and tried to grab or rather kill us. After a few tugs I pull it off, and the doors close.

"You pulled his arm off," the woman said the obvious. Her name was Rose Tyler and she was really just about freaked out that a dummy had just come to life and attacked her. Since when do dummies come to life?

"Yes, it's plastic." If the arm is plastic then it can be easily taken off, as I've just shown the girl.

"Very clever, nice trick! Who were they then, students? Is this a student thing or what?" What she had just seen couldn't be real. She'd heard that students were the ones likely to attempt a prank like this, who else could it be?

Why would she think that? "Why would they be students?" How would students even be able to make the dummies move, and why would they let them attack the girl. I know students aren't that mean to other people. Especially, to someone I'm pretty sure they've never met.

"I don't know," she shrugged.

She should know, she's the one who said it. Either she does or she doesn't. "Well, you said it. Why students?"

"'Cos to get that many people dressed up and being silly, they got to be students." Only students would do something like this, or maybe Derrick, he was a royal pain in the arse he was ( a fellow colleague as well).

"Huh, that makes sense. Well done." And it did, I could see how she might think they are actual people dressed up to look like dummies.

"Thanks."

It was the wrong answer though. "They're not students." They really were Autons: they could make themselves look human though they didn't look particularly life like and were robotic in its movements.

"Whoever they are, when Wilson finds them, he's going to call the police." He just had to. Wilson lived down here as he was basically in charge of the electricity going through the building.

"Who's Wilson?" She never did mention who he was and she kept on mentioning him, he sounded like he was a person of authority, at least I think he was higher up in terms of dominance hierarchy.

"Chief electrician." Ah, that's who that poor man was. I wonder why she needed to speak to him though, she didn't look like an electrician or someone who works in that department. Wait, I think I can remember her saying something about having his lottery money with her.

"I'm afraid Wilson's dead," there was no nicer way of saying it. It didn't look like she had any relation to him apart from working for the same shop. I feel sorry for his family though, that's if he has any.

The girl looked shocked when I said that he was dead. I think she's lead a very sheltered life in a flat or something like that, probably just her and her mum. She probably hasn't known anyone else either friendship or family related that has died.

We get out of the elevator and I get my screwdriver out the lift. The sonic screwdriver, that was sometimes called the sonic, was a highly versatile tool that I have upgraded over my nine Regenerations. Over the years I've managed to make the sonic be able to pick locks (though I can do that easily with just a hair grip), project sound waves (that could detonate bombs, as an example) and it can be used as a sophisticated scanning device, with medical applications which comes in really useful for me. My friend The Doctor lives up to his title perfectly, he was the one who healed people. I was the one who gave them hope and courage to stand up on their own and to hopefully, in the end, save them.

Normally I'm not one to rely totally on a screw driver to get things done like my old friend The Doctor used to but having it with me allowed me to remember him fondly. He couldn't once go on any adventures without bringing it, I'm also sure he used it at least once on our adventures around the Universe together.

"That's just not funny. That's sick!" I think the shock of what's just happened is coming on to that girl.

"Mind your eyes," I warned her as the lift mechanism sparked, I disabled the lift to keep it from moving with my sonic screwdriver from moving. I didn't want her to get hurt.

"I've had enough of this now. Who are you, then? Who's that lot down there? I said, who are they?" She was really sick and tired of this right now. This prank has gone on long enough.

She followed me as I led her to the back of the shop. I explained along the way. "They're made of plastic. Living plastic creatures called Autons. They're being controlled by a relay device in the roof, which would be a great big problem if I didn't have this." I held up a small bomb. I didn't really want to use it but I've got little left to live for now that all my people and my planet have gone. "So, I'm going to go up there and blow them up, and I might well die in the process, but don't worry about me. No, you go home. Go on. Go and have your lovely beans on toast." It seems to me that's what they like eating the most. "Don't tell anyone about this, because if you do, you'll get them killed."

I shut the door behind me, then opens it again as I forgot to introduce myself and ask for her name. "I'm The Iris, by the way. What's your name?" I ask, smiling at her.

"Rose," she replied. She looks kind of shocked, she has in all the time I've seen her, but I have to get rid of the threat to earth. Otherwise I would have comforted her if I could. I had to save the planet though: my old friend The Doctor and I really enjoyed travelling before the war and always managed to save the planet and it's people many times. They were our favourite species, Humans: they always surprised us. Some were predictable and some were a lot more interesting. The ones who were able to hold themselves in a situation were likely to become The Doctor's companion.

I've never, in all the years of my travelling with his have ever had a companion. It's not because I didn't want to have one, because I did, but because I didn't feel like anyone we came across could be my companion. It's just a feeling but I think I know who my companion is when I see them. I've a feeling that I'm going to get one soon but going to get my hopes up.

"Nice to meet you, Rose, run for your life!" This was the weirdest experience she had ever had, Rose thought to herself. She looked back at the shop, for some reason wondering if The Iris was going to be okay even though they'd only just met and she seemed like the most capable woman she'd ever seen. Although it did seem to her that she was quite lonely, she just had a feeling she was. It was just in the woman's expressions, how her smiles never reached her eyes.

She was wondering about this as she crossed the road and in response she almost got run over by a car.

As soon as she reached the other side she jumped and turned around when she heard a huge explosion going on behind her. Henrik's just blew up. She'd never be able to get any answers on what just happened from The Iris now.

I closed the door when I said my name and ran up to the roof to blow the shop up.

A few minutes later I blow the shop up with me luckily outside and in the TARDIS. The TARDIS stands for 'Time and Relative Dimension in Space' and it was a Type 40 TARDIS. It was officially my TARDIS that I stole (yes, I own up to the fact that I stole it) but both The Doctor and I used it to take ourselves and The Doctor's companions throughout space and time. It was also capable of travelling between parallel realties even though it wasn't specifically designed for inter-dimensional time travel.

The outside colour of the TARDIS was what I call a TARDIS blue. It was now always in the shape of a 1963 Police box. When I landed the Old girl, as I call the ship, in London in that time the Chameleon Circuit broke. The Chameleon Circuit was basically a mechanism that allowed all TARDISes to blend into their surroundings, by now though I have grown very fond of this disguise.

On the outside of the box you would find two doors where on the right door you would find a lock where you would insert the key to the TARDIS. Although I can open the doors with a snap of my fingers: I think if you can do that I think it means that she likes you, at least likes you a lot as she has only ever allowed me to do it and I know that she does at least like The Doctor (though perhaps not as much as me since he kept on breaking the TARDIS which required me to constantly fix her. It will take me years (which I have plenty of) to rebuild her completely. On the left door there is a panel in which a replica of a telephone used in real Police boxes that were used to call Police. It was just a replica though, it was non-functional.

The inside of a TARDIS had many rooms. The most used one is the console room which is the first room you see when you enter the TARDIS. The walls inside this room consisted of roundels- circular indentations that lined the walls of the console room and sometimes the walls further into the ships' interior.

The console room was dominated by a large, hexagonal console and on it were the controls that I would use to operate the TARDIS.

Other rooms you would find in the TARDIS were past companion's accommodations, the Library, the Swimming pool, the Wardrobe, the Cloister bell room, the Holding ring, Flora and Fauna, the Zero room, the Kitchen and contained many others.

The next morning, however, I soon discover another signal of the Autons and track it to a block of flats called the Powell estate.

I track it a couple of floors up and shake the door to see if it's closed. It was, I could hear two women inside.

"Mum, you're such a liar. I told you to nail that cat flap down. We're going to get strays," Rose warned her mum as she went to check who was at the door. They didn't have anyone scheduled to visit.

"I did it weeks back!" her mother, Jackie Tyler, complained.

"No, you thought about it." She always forgets to do things like this. She noticed that the screws for the cat flap were on the floor. Then the flap moves. Rose decides to open it with one of the screws on the floor around the flap. She saw The Iris on the other side. No way, she actually survived the explosion.

I smile happily at Rose who I see on the other side of the flat, thankful she made it out safe and sound but I did have to wonder what she was doing here. It's well past nine o'clock, the time when young people like her should be studying, socialising or going to work. She opens the door for me.

"What're you doing here?" I ask her.

"I live here." What else would she be doing here, Rose thought to herself, wondering why The Iris was here.

"Well, what do you do that for?" she should be out and about, living the good life.

"Because I do. I'm only at home because someone blew up my job." Ah, that's why she's at home. I'm sorry that she's lost her job, but not sorry to have to save millions of lives. I'm sure she could find another job easily enough.

"I must have got the wrong signal." This is not a place Autons would be stationed. "You're not plastic, are you?" I rapped my knuckles on her head. "No human, bye then Rose."

Oh no, she was going to get some answers since she found out The Iris was alive. She was at the scene last night; she must have some answers for her. "You. Inside. Right now."

She pulled me into her flat without giving me a chance to refuse.

Another woman asked Rose, "Who is it?" It was Jackie in her bedroom putting on her makeup, dressed in her pink dressing gown.

"It's about last night," Rose said, leaning on the doorway. "She's part of the inquiry. Give us ten minutes."

"She deserves compensation," Jackie said to me as I stood in front of her open doorway. She was a short woman probably in her early late thirties with blonde hair the same shade as her daughter. Rose was just a bit taller than her I think.

"Oh, we're talking millions," I agreed, Rose has a good head on her shoulders. I saw that in her that night, she didn't scream or faint, she even stayed with me the whole time I was explaining about the Autons to her. I then walked into a messy lounge.

"Don't mind the mess. Do you want a coffee?" Rose asks me as she heads into her kitchen. Well, she's very polite. Her mother has brought her up with very good many. I was right when I was thinking last night that she lived alone with her mum, she had no other family. Her father Pete Tyler passed away when she was a small child.

"Might as well, thanks," since I seem to be staying here for a while. "Lots of milk and two sugars."

"We should go to the police. Seriously, both of us." There is no other course of action open to us. At least, there weren't others that she could think of. We were both here at the scene of the explosions, the best thing to do would be to tell the Police.

Yeah, that's not going to happen. I look at the front copy of Heat on the coffee table and realise, "that won't last, he's gay and she's an alien."

"I'm not blaming you, even if it was just some sort of joke that went wrong." Rose carried on, I can't believe she still thinks it's a joke after all that's been thrown at her the day before but maybe that's just how she handles things.

I flip through a paperback book. I've read this one before. "Hmm. Sad ending." I remember my best friend The Doctor didn't like endings. I didn't like death at all but I knew it was a natural part of life.

"They said on the news they'd found a body." That was sad, I'm sorry for the person's family. It was probably Wilson that they found.

"Rose Tyler." That was her name. I had checked using the scanner when I went back inside the TARDIS.

I then see my reflection in a small mirror. Since the war ended and I left my no longer planet I haven't had the chance to see what I looked like yet. You see my people, the Time lords or rather for me the last Time Lady, could regenerate. It's basically to cheat death. If you get killed all the atoms in your body will change you into someone completely new: a new face, new body, and a new personality. Your thoughts and memories stay with you though.

I notice that I am quite small, about Rose's height, I have light blonde hair, lighter than Rose's that was just under my shoulders and had just few big curls. I had light blue eyes nearer grey, a small nose and big lips. In the TARDIS wardrobe I had found TARDIS blue leggings, light grey jean shorts, and a simple red halter neck top (that covered my chest) and a black leather jacket.

"I look alright then. I've never totally been focused on my looks before though. I've never needed to."

"All the same, he was nice. Nice bloke."

I spot a pack of cards and try to shuffle them. The cards go flying. I've found that in all my regenerations I've never had good coordination. It's probably going to be the death of me one day.

"Anyway, if we are going to go to the police, I want to know what I'm saying." Why does she keep thinking that I'm going to the Police. "I want you to explain everything." She seemed like the more confident one of the two, she also seemed to hold more knowledge on this matter then her.

"I don't think so." Being who I am, a Time Lady, I don't need the Police. In fact, though I'm not trying to sound or be arrogant, I am better than the Police will ever be, though they can protect their fellow Humans well I will admit that.

I then hear the cat flap rattle. " Have you got a cat?" I asked Rose.

"No."

Just then something grabbed me by the throat, starting to choke me. I realised it was the Autons arm that I took off yesterday. She must have brought it home with her, well what a silly thing to do. Did she want to get killed? Didn't she notice the Autons that decided to kill her when she arrived at the basement of the shop that she used to work at?

"We did have, but now they're just strays. They come in off the estate." We never bothered to feed them, we leave that o a little old lady a few floors down from us.

I see Rose come in from the kitchen area with two mugs of coffee but she takes no notice as I fall onto a chair, still being strangled to death. This is certainly not a way I want to die. How can this human not notice? Is she blind?

"I told Mickey to chuck that out. You're all the same. Give a woman a plastic hand. Anyway, I don't even know your name. Iris, what was it?"

I finally manage to throw the arm off. It stops in mid-air and then grabs Rose's face instead and pushes her into the wall. Oh no, she is not going to suffocate on my watch. I pull at it but pull Rose down on top of me as we fall onto the coffee table and break it. It's a wonder Jackie doesn't hear us thought I did just start to hear a hairdryer going. After tumbling around the lounge I get it off Rose with my sonic screwdriver, and then jab it into its palm causing the fingers stop moving.

"It's all right, I've stopped it. There you go, you see? Armless." I laughed at my joke.

"Do you think?" Rose then hit me with it.

"Oww!" that hurt.

I decide to then leave while I could. "Hold on a minute. You can't just go swanning off," Rose tells me as she follows me down the stairs.

I can actually do whatever I like. She's just a child compared to me. Every human is a child compared to me. "Yes I can. Here I am. This is me, swanning off. See you."

"But that arm was moving. It tried to kill me."

She's stating the obvious there. "Ten out of ten for observation."

"You can't just walk away. That's not fair. You've got to tell me what's going on."

Why should I? She doesn't need to know. Anyway, it could get her killed if she follows me though I try to protect everyone I can. "No, I don't."

I walk outside and she's still following me. "All right, then. I'll go to the police. I'll tell everyone. You said, if I did that, I'd get people killed. So, your choice. Tell me, or I'll start talking."

"Is that supposed to sound tough?"

"Sort of." If it was the only way to get her to talk then she was willing to act tough.

"Doesn't work."

"Who are you?" She's told me her name, though who could name their child The Iris? Iris sounds like a Human name but she makes it sound like a title. But one thing she hasn't told me is who she is, meaning like- who does she work for and things like that.

Wasn't she listening? "I told you before. I'm The Iris."

"Yeah, but Iris what?"

Why is that never enough for humans? "Just The Iris."

"The Iris."

"Hello!" I wave at her.

"Is that supposed to sound impressive?" she asks, smiling at me.

"Sort of," I shot her earlier reply back at her. She was a very witty girl. I quite like her.

"Come on, then. You can tell me. I've seen enough. Are you the police?"

"No, I was just passing through. I'm a long way from home." I smile sadly, remembering my planet: the planet Gallifrey.

"But what have I done wrong? How comes those plastic things keep coming after me?" She's a bit full of herself though it's understandable how she might come to that conclusion. She was in the wrong place at the wrong place at the wrong time.

"Oh, suddenly the entire world revolves around you. You were just an accident. You got in the way, that's all." If she hadn't have been down in that basement last night then the Autons wouldn't have tried to kill her.

"It tried to kill me."

She was stating the obvious again. "It was after me, not you. Last night, in the shop, I was there; you came in and almost ruined the whole thing. This morning, I was tracking it down, it was tracking me down. The only reason it fixed on you is 'cos you've met me." I try not to bring danger with me but something's are out of my control. If it were up to me I would like nobody to be harmed and the Earth would be safe all the time.

"So what you're saying is the entire world revolves around you." I didn't think of it like that.

"Sort of, yeah."

"You're full of it." I guess were the same then, both a bit full of our selves.

I always was a bit full of myself. Back on Gallifrey there was a building called the Academy where all young Time Lords and Ladies learnt about their world and the rest of the Universe. I was the best student they have ever had. I have what you call Hyperthymesia where I can remember every single day of my life in perfect detail. Most time lords have a good memory anyway, they'd have to as they can live for thousands of years. It's helped me especially when I was studying for exams so with the amount of information I remembered I passed all my exams. My parents were really pleased with that achievement. My main interest is in learning about all things in the Universe but my second interest would be mechanics which was why I made a good TARDIS Famer (where people look after different TARDIS) but my main occupation on Gallifrey was a Professor that was able to teach all subjects at the Academy.

"Sort of, yeah." I repeated both of us laughing and Rose slipped her arm through mine.

"But, all this plastic stuff. Who else knows about it?" Surely there's got to be more than just her.

"No one."

"What, you're on your own?" She wouldn't want to be on her own all the time. But luckily she isn't: she's got her mum and her boyfriend Mickey Smith.

I'm always on my own now, ever since the War. "Well, who else is there? I mean, you lot, and all you do is eat chips, go to bed, and watch telly, while all the time, underneath you, there's a war going on."

"Okay. Start from the beginning. I mean, if we're going to go with the living plastic, and I don't even believe that, but if we do, how did you kill it?" There must be someway of destroying those dummies.

"The thing controlling it projects life into the arm. I cut off the signal, dead." Though I hate to kill any living thing. Like The Doctor I want to give people second chances or more whenever I can. I hate death.

"So that's radio control?"

Oh, I think this miss might be quite smart. She was on the right lines. "Thought control. Are you all right?" It can be quite a bit of a shock if you've never been through what Rose did yesterday all your life.

"Yeah. So, who's controlling it, then?" She's asking the right kind of questions.

"Long story."

"But what's it all for? I mean, shop window dummies, what's that about? Is someone trying to take over Britain's shops?"

I laughed at that silly idea. "No."

"No."

"It's not a price war. They want to overthrow the Human race and destroy you. Do you believe me?"

"No." How could anyone believe that? How could anyone even know that they were going to overthrow the Human race and destroy us?

"But you're still listening," I pointed out as I kept walking towards the TARDIS as Rose stopped. She noticed the blue box a few feet ahead of her before turning to The Iris.

"Really, though, Iris. Tell me, who are you?"

She won't stop going on about that will she. "Do you know like we were saying about the Earth revolving? It's like when you were a kid. The first time they tell you the world's turning and you just can't quite believe it because everything looks like its standing still. I can feel it," I grabbed her hand as she came and stood next to me. "The turn of the Earth. The ground beneath our feet is spinning at a thousand miles an hour, and the entire planet is hurtling round the sun at sixty seven thousand miles an hour, and I can feel it. We're falling through space, you and me, clinging to the skin of this tiny little world, and if we let go," I let go of her hand. "That's who I am. Now, forget me, Rose Tyler. Go home." I don't want her getting hurt because of me like she almost did yesterday and today.

I walk off towards the TARDIS with the Auton arm that I brought with us while Rose walks off home when there is a rush of air and a strange grinding noise. She turns and runs back, and the TARDIS has gone.


	2. Rose: Introducing The Iris

Rose: Introducing the Iris

Rose arrives at her black boyfriend's Mickey's flat. "Hey, hey, here's my woman. Kit off!"

"Shut up." They kiss.

"Coffee?" Mickey asks as he walks into his kitchen while Rose heads to his old computer. Rose really does love her coffee.

"Yeah, only if you wash the mug," he was lazy like that. "And I don't mean rinse, I mean wash. Can I use your computer?"

"Yeah. Any excuse getting in the bedroom. Don't read my emails!" Mickey shouted.

Rose uses the website to hunt for Iris, resulting in 17,700,000 results. Then Iris Living Plastic giving 55,300 results. And then Iris Blue Box 493 results. The top one says - Iris Who? ...do you know this woman, contact Clive here. She clicks on the site and there is a fuzzy picture of the Iris.

~TI~

The next day Mickey drives Rose to Clive's Street in his yellow VW beetle and parks on the opposite street to his house.

"You're not coming in," Rose told Mickey, still in the car. "He's safe. He's got a wife and kids," she told him, trying to reassure him that she would be fine.

"Yeah, who told you that? He did. That's exactly what an internet lunatic murderer would say." He was very protective of his Rose. She looked after him when his Gran passed away a few years back. When they became boyfriend and girlfriend her returned the favour and became very over protective of her.

Sometimes Rose finds it sweet and sometimes she finds it annoying.

One of Clive's neighbours puts out his black wheelie bin and gives Mickey quite a nasty look as Rose heads over to Clive's door. Rose knocks on a door and a young boy of maybe seven or eight opens it.

"Hello, I've come to see Clive? We've been emailing."

"Dad! It's one of your nutters!" she felt quite insulted for that.

An overweight man with short brown hair and brown eyes comes to the door.

"Oh, sorry. Hello. You must be Rose. I'm Clive, obviously."

"I'd better tell you now. My boyfriend's waiting in the car, just in case you're going to kill me."

"No, good point. No murders," Clive waves at Mickey.

His wife asks, "Who is it?"

"Oh, it's something to do with the Iris. She's been reading the website. Please, come through. I'm in the shed."

"She? She's read a website about The Iris? She's a she?" the wife called as Rose and Clive walked through shed the house to the shed in the garden.

"A lot of this stuff's quite sensitive," Clive explained to Rose once they were in a huge but very messy shed.

"I couldn't just send it to you. People might intercept it, if you know what I mean. If you dig deep enough and keep a lively mind, this Iris keeps cropping up all over the place. Political diaries, conspiracy theories, even ghost stories. No first name, no last name, just the Iris. Always The Iris. There used to be another one as well, a man called The Doctor. The two of them could be seen travelling together. And the title seems to have been passed down from mother to daughter and father to son. It appears to be an inheritance. That's your Iris there, isn't it?" He had brought out a folder and opened it to show Iris as she was last seen to Rose. It was a bit of a blurry picture but you could clearly see it was The Iris.

"Yeah."

"I tracked it down to the Washington public archive just last year. The online photo's enhanced, but if we look at the original." The original picture was of Kennedy's cortege going through Dallas. The Iris was one of the many faces in the crowd. "November the 22nd, 1963. The assassination of President Kennedy. You see?"

"It must be her mother," Rose said in disbelief, 'cause how could she be there in that specific time when she saw her yesterday.

"Going further back. April 1912. This is a photo of the Daniels family of Southampton, and friend. This was taken the day before they were due to sail off for the New World on the Titanic, and for some unknown reason, they cancelled the trip and survived. And here we are. 1883. Another Iris," this photo was a sketch.

"And look, the same lineage. It's identical. This one washed up on the coast of Sumatra on the very day Krakatoa exploded. The Iris as well as The Doctor is a legend woven throughout history. When disaster comes, they're there though I haven't been able to spot any pictures of the Doctor much. He brings the storm in his wake and they both have one constant companion."

"Who's that?"

"Death. Though The Iris is known to protect more people than The Doctor."

~TI~

Back out in the street, a black wheelie bin moves closer to Mickey's car.

~TI~

"If The Iris is back, if you've seen her, Rose, then one thing's for certain. We're all in danger."

~TI~

Mickey watches the bin move a few feet closer to him and gets out of his car. Not believing that what he could see was happening. He goes to the bin and lifts up the lid but sees nothing inside. "Come on, then."

~TI~

"If she's singled you out, if The Iris is making house calls, then God help you."

~TI~

Mickey shuts the bin lid and turns to walk back to his car but finds that his hands are stuck to the plastic lid. He pulls his arm and the plastic stretches with him. The bin growls, flexes, snaps and finally pulls Mickey inside it elf and burps.

~TI~

"But who is she? Who do you think they are?" I only saw the Iris. I never saw a man with her who was presumably The Doctor.

"I think she's the same woman and he the same man. I think they're immortal. I think they're an alien from another world."

Rose returns to the car to the car after that to reveal that Mickey is back behind the wheel though he wasn't the same Mickey as before. This Mickey is plastic. "All right, he's a nutter. Off his head. Complete online conspiracy freak. You win! What are we going to do tonight? I fancy a pizza."

"Pizza! P-p-p-pizza!"

"Or Chinese."

"Pizza!" Plastic Mickey drives off down the street.

~TI~

In a pizza restaurant Rose is still oblivious to the fact that Mickey has shiny skin and a fixed grin on his face. "Do you think I should try the hospital? Suki said they had a job going in the canteen. Is that it then, dishing out chips? I could do A Levels. I don't know. It's all Jimmy Stone's fault. I only left school because of him. Look where he ended up. What do you think?"

"So, where did you meet this Iris?" Plastic Mickey asked out of the blue.

"I'm sorry, wasn't I talking about me for a second?" She was always looking after everyone else, her mum, her boyfriend.

"Because I reckon it started back at the shop, am I right? Was she something to do with that?"

"No."

"Come on."

"Sort of," Rose admitted.

"What was she doing there?"

"I'm not going on about it, Mickey. Really, I'm not, because, I know it sounds daft, but I don't think it's safe. I think she's dangerous."

"But you can trust me, sweetheart. Babe," his voice turns deep, "sugar, babe, sugar. You can tell me anything. Tell me about the Iris and what she's planning, and I can help you, Rose. Because that's all I really want to do, sweetheart, babe, babe, sugar, sweetheart."

"What're you doing that for?" she asked, he was starting to scare her.

"Your champagne," a waitress who was in fact The Iris said to the couple, holding out the bottle.

"We didn't order any champagne. Where's The Iris?"

I tried getting Rose's attention. "Madam, your champagne."

"It's not ours. Mickey, what is it? What's wrong?"

"I need to find out how much you know, so where is she?"

"Doesn't anybody want this champagne?" I ask the both of them, humans never look up.

"Look, we didn't order it," plastic Mickey growled before he looked up to see it was The Iris. "Ah. Gotcha," plastic Mickey grinned maliciously.

I start shaking the bottle vigorously. "Don't mind me," I told them as they watched me. "I'm just toasting the happy couple. On the house!" I cheer before I release the cage around the cork and it flies into plastic Mickey's forehead and he absorbs it. After a few seconds he spits it out.

"Anyway," plastic Mickey said before he got up and turned his hand into a chopper. Rose runs away screaming as Mickey wrecks the table. This caches the rest of the customer's attention.

I grab the Auton and put him in a headlock, trying and succeeding to pull off its head. The rest of the customers scream and start to leave the building.

"Don't think that's going to stop me."

The body gets up and starts flailing around while Rose sets off the fire alarm, "everyone out! Out now! Get out! Get out! Get out!"

Rose and I run through the kitchens with me carrying the head, while the body wrecks the restaurant before following us to the back exit.

I seals the exit shut while Rose runs down the alley, past the TARDIS. The end is secured by padlocked gates. "Open the gate! Use that tube thing. Come on!"

"Sonic screwdriver," a lot of humans can't seem to recognise it. Before the War only the Doctor had the Screwdriver and I had the, though I couldn't read it myself. The Doctor said that made me cleverer than others, which I was anyway as it was meant to show the person you were showing it to whatever position you needed.

"Use it!"

"Nah, tell you what, let's go in here," I nudge my head towards the TARDIS before I unlock it and go inside while the Auton hammers on the metal door, making large dents in the door.

"You can't hide inside a wooden box. It's going to get us! Iris!" Rose tries the gate again then runs inside the TARDIS. She stops, takes one look and runs outside again. The inside was impossible. A siren is wailing in the distance. She runs around the TARDIS then when the Auton finally smashes through the metal door, she makes up her mind and goes inside. It must be better in there then out here.

"It's going to follow us!" Rose said to me as she travelled up the stairs to the new console.

"The assembled hoards of Genghis Khan couldn't get through that door, and believe me, they've tried. Now, shut up a minute." She was quite the chatter box wasn't she?

The TARDIS has been newly redesigned since the War. It is still mostly empty of decorations or equipment but the time console is more central and the walls are slightly curved then the last one. What were once roundels are now brass coloured hexagons.

"You see," I started explaining to her about the Autons. "The arm was too simple, but the head's perfect," I was referring to the head of the Plastic Mickey. "I can use it to trace the signal back to the original source. Right. Where do you want to start?"

"Err; the inside's bigger than the outside?" I love that bit. All the humans say it. I love seeing the wonder and awe as they see my TARDIS for who she really is.

"Yes."

"It's alien," she's clever.

"Yeah."

"Are you alien?"

"Yes. Is that all right?" It can be quite of a shock to some.

"Yeah." Huh, she's strong this one.

"It's called the TARDIS, this ship," I decided to explain it to her as was only fair since she will be in here for a few minutes. "T. A. R. D. I. S. That's Time And Relative Dimension In Space." As soon as I said that Rose burst into tears. Ah, I should have expected that to happen. "That's okay. Culture shock. Happens to the best of us." I was thinking it should have been about the Autons. She must not have had any experience with any aliens.

"Did they kill him? Mickey? Did they kill Mickey? Is he dead?" she asks me. Ah, so that's what she was crying about. I do now recall the Autons in the shop was Mickey, her boyfriend. Oops, I'm sorry I forgot him.

"Oh. I didn't think of that," I admitted to her. I feel bad about that.

How can she forget Mickey? "He's my boyfriend. You pulled off his head. They copied him and you didn't even think?"

"He's probably fine," I tried to reassure her. "The thing that's behind this probably needs him alive to maintain the copy." I decided to let her have a bit of hope that Mickey was alive. If she's going to stay here with me for the moment I need her to have a clear head.

"And now you're just going to let him melt?" she asked The Iris, though she was very glad that Mickey could still well be alive.

"Melt?" what was she talking about? I turned around to see the plastic Mickey head melting on the console where I had attached it to with cables. "Oh, no, no, no, no, no!" How can this be happening? Oh, wait, he's plastic. He's melted because of the heat. I should have thought of that before. I need to trace the signal so I can even think of a plan to destroy the source. I set the TADIS in motion trying to track the signal as fast as I can.

"What're you doing?" Rose asks me. She didn't have a clue what all those buttons were for.

"Following the signal," I replied. "It's fading. Wait a minute, I've got it. No, no, no, no, no, no, no! Almost there. Almost there. Here we go!" The TARDIS lands and I run runs for the door. It was a bit of a shaky ride. This TARDIS was meant to be flown by six people not just one or two, that's why the rides are always so bumpy. It would be a lot smoother if there were more people to control her. The Doctor didn't even pass his test.

"You can't go out there. It's not safe," Rose warned her. How can she go out there when there was the plastic Mickey out to get us? Never thought she'd ever be saying that and then she followed Iris out the door.


	3. Rose: The Nestene Consciousness

Rose: The Nestene Consciousness

Outside would find the two in Westminster at night time on the north back of the Thames next to the RAF monument.

"I lost the signal, I got so close," I groaned after trying to pick up the signal again with my sonic screwdriver.

"We've moved," Rose said after looking at where they are with astonishment. "Does it fly?" She thought it was just a box. How can a box move?

"Disappears there and reappears here," was the easiest way for her to understand. She wouldn't understand anything else. "You wouldn't understand." At least at the moment I don't think she would and we haven't got the time.

"If we're somewhere else, what about that headless thing? It's still on the loose," she didn't want it to kill loads of people.

"It melted with the head. Are you going to witter on all night?" I can't concentrate if she kept on talking. I needed to find how to stop the Autons so they wouldn't kill anyone.

"I'll have to tell his mother. Mickey. I'll have to tell his mother he's dead, and you just went and forgot him, again! You were right, you are alien."

"Look, if I did forget some kid called Mickey."

"Yeah, he's not a kid." He is in my eyes. She's really making me annoyed. It takes a lot to make me angry.

"It's because I'm trying to save the life of every stupid ape blundering on top of this planet, all right?"

"All right."

"Yes, it is!" Finally I can concentrate.

"If you are an alien," great. "How comes you sound like you're from the North?" Oh, I didn't really realise that, but what's the problem with sounding like that.

"Lots of planets have a north," and a south, east and west.

Rose looked at the TARDIS. "What's a police public call box?"

"It's a telephone box from the 1950s," didn't she do history in school. "It's a disguise." The Chameleon circuits broke on my first trip to Earth. I could change it but the Doctor really like the TARDIS like this and I must admit I agree.

"Okay. And this, this living plastic. What's it got against us?"

"Nothing. It loves you. You've got such a good planet. Lots of smoke and oil, plenty of toxins and dioxins in the air, perfect. Just what the Nestene Consciousness needs. Its food stock was destroyed in the war, all its protein plants rotted, so Earth, dinner!" I worked out that it was the Nestene

Consciousness in charge of all this.

"Any way of stopping it?" There's got to be some way so we can save the Earth.

I bring out a tube of blue liquid out of my bigger-on-the-inside-pockets and hold it up to show Rose.

"Anti-plastic," I answered to her questioning face.

"Anti-plastic."

She repeats a lot of things I say. "Anti-plastic. But first I've got to find it," referring to the Nestene Consciousness though I haven't told that to Rose yet. "How can you hide something that big in a city this small?"

"Hold on. Hide what?" What was she talking about?

"The transmitter. The Consciousness is controlling every single piece of plastic, so it needs a transmitter to boost the signal."

"What does it look like?"

I just said it looks like a transmitter, what else does it look like? "Like a transmitter. Round and massive, slap bang in the middle of London: a huge circular metal structure like a dish, like a wheel. Radial. Close to where we're standing. Must be completely invisible. What? What?"

I turn and look at what Rose is staring at on the south bank but I don't see what she's staring at. "What? What is it? What?" I look back and forth between Rose and what she is looking at a few times before it finally clicks. It's the London Eye. "Oh. Fantastic!"

**~TI~**

A few minutes later will find me and Rose running across Westminster Bridge hand in hand.

"Think of it, plastic all over the world, every artificial thing waiting to come alive. The shop window dummies, the phones, the wires, the cables," I say to Rose as we stop at the end of the bridge

"The breast implants." Ooh, she seems quite clever.

"Still, we've found the transmitter. The Consciousness must be somewhere underneath."

"What about down here?" Rose had walked over the parapet and saw a large manhole entrance at the bottom of some steps.

"Looks good to me."

We run down and I open up a hatch where we see a red light inside.

~TI~

Inside the chamber we climb down a short ladder into a brick-built area with lots of chains. From there we go through a door and down a flight of steps into a multi-level chamber. We move forward and look over a railing to see the Nestene Consciousness. It looked like it was made of a bright orange magma that kept bubbling and sizzling.

"That's it, inside the vat. A living plastic creature," I explained to Rose.

"Well, then. Tip in your anti-plastic and let's go."

Why does she think I'm going to kill it? It's not what the Doctor would do and it's against my nature to kill anything. "I'm not here to kill it. I've got to give it a chance." I go down to a catwalk overlooking the Consciousness. "I seek audience with the Nestene Consciousness under peaceful contract according to convention 15 of the Shadow Proclamation. Something in the Consciousness flexes. Back on my planet we have a place called the Academy where we learn all about ourselves and other species including how to understand their languages. It also helps when you've got the TARDIS translations circuits that will help translate anything for you except if it's in Gallifreyan. "Thank you. If I might have permission to approach?"

Rose spots someone on a lower level and runs down to help them. It was Mickey. The real Mickey. "Oh, God! Mickey, it's me! It's okay. It's all right." She hugs him and he doesn't let go.

"That thing down there, the liquid. Rose, it can talk!"

"You're stinking. Iris, they kept him alive."

"Yeah, that was always a possibility as I told you earlier."

I continue downwards to get closer to the Consciousness. "Am I addressing the Consciousness? Thank you. If I might observe, you infiltrated this civilisation by means of warp shunt technology. So, may I suggest, with the greatest respect, that you leave?"

The humans and I watch as a face forms in the vat of plastic. "Oh, don't give me that. It's an invasion, plain and simple. Don't talk about constitutional rights. I am talking! This planet is just starting. These stupid little people have only just learnt how to walk, but they're capable of so much more. I'm asking you on their behalf. Please, just go."

"Iris!" Rose shouted to me. I looked over to her to see her pointing behind me. Before I can do anything a Pair of Autons grab me. One of them takes the vial of anti-plastic from my pocket.

I turned back to the Consciousness. "That was just insurance. I wasn't going to use it. I was not attacking you. I'm here to help. I'm not your enemy. I swear, I'm not. What do you mean?" I turn my head to look behind me to see a door sliding back to reveal the TARDIS. "No. Oh, no. Honestly, no. Yes, that's my ship. That's not true. I should know, I was there. I fought in the war. It wasn't my fault. I couldn't save your world! I couldn't save any of them!"

"What's it doing?!" Rose asked me.

"It's the TARDIS! The Nestene's identified its superior technology. It's terrified. It's going to the final phase. It's starting the invasion! Get out, Rose! Just leg it now!"

As the plastic in the vat keeps roaring, Rose just ignores my warning and takes out her phone. She phones her mother. "Mum?"

Outside a police station Jackie answers her phone. "Oh, there you are. I was just going to phone. You can get compensation. I said so. I've got this document thing off the police. Don't thank me."

"Where are you, mum?"

"I'm in town," she said outside Queen's Arcade.

"No, go home! Just go home right now!"

"Darling, you're breaking up. Listen, I'm just going to do a bit of late night shopping. I'll see you later. Ta-ra!"

"Mum! Mum!" Rose shouts before she realises that her mom's turned off the call.

~TI~

Jackie goes into Queens Arcade, which contains the Underground station entrance.

~TI~

The Consciousness starts throwing energy bolts around.

"It's the activation signal. It's transmitting!" I explained to Rose. The Eye above lights up with energy.

"It's the end of the world," Rose said dramatically.

~TI~

Inside the Queens Arcade would find Clive and his wife doing some late night shopping. "There's no point creating a spreadsheet if you're going to spend summer money in winter months."

Near them a shop dummy moves. "Oh, my God! I thought they were dummies. I nearly had a heart-attack," Caroline, his wife exclaimed.

Everyone stopped to watch the show in all the store windows until one dummy smashes the glass and comes out.

As this is happening Jackie is coming down the escalator.

It's true," said Clive to his family. "Everything I read all the stories. It's all true." An Auton's fingers drop and it shoots Clive causing Carol to scream and run.

~TI~

The plastic in the vat is getting extremely agitated.

"Get out, Rose! Just get out! Run!" Why wouldn't she go? Does she have a death wish?

"The stairs have gone." Ah so that's why. The Autons that grabbed me try to push me into the vat. Rose and Mickey run to the TARDIS.

"I haven't got the key!" Rose said to Mickey after trying to get the doors open.

""We're going to die!" Mickey said before he slumped down to the floor and leaned on the TARDIS doors. Rose looked around for other possibilities.

~TI~

Back at the shopping centre, Autons start coming down the escalator, shooting at anyone. Jackie finally screams, throws away her plastic bag and runs. But outside the Arcade is just as dangerous. The Autons shoot a passing taxi driver. She hides behind the crashed vehicle, and then three brides smash their way out of the shop behind her.

"No!" I shouted at the Consciousness.

"Time Lady." Yep, that's what I am. The last of my kind.

Rose stands up and looks at me, then runs round the chamber.

"Just leave her!" Mickey shouted over to her. "There's nothing you can do!"

"I've got no A Levels, no job, and no future." She grabs an axe.

~TI~

The three bride Autons prepare to shoot Jackie.

~TI~

"But I tell you what I have got," Rose continued. "Jericho Street Junior School under 7s gymnastic team. I've got the bronze!" She lifts up the axe and chops through the rope holding a very long chain to the wall and takes a firm hold of the chain. She runs and swings out along the side of the catwalk, kicking the two Autons into the vat. The second one also drops the vial of anti-plastic into it. The Nestene screams as it starts to turn blue.

"Rose!" I call as I notice her swinging back my way. I catch her when she comes close enough and give her a quick once over to make sure that she wasn't hurt.

"Now we're in trouble." I was looking at the Consciousness as I said that as I knew it was soon going to explode. To confirm that explosions started and the signals from the Eye stop. The shop dummies start to stagger then fall over causing the human to come out of hiding, revealing Jackie from behind the taxi safe and sound.

Rose and I run into the TARDIS after I unlock the doors. I notice that Mickey is holding on to her for dear life before Rose pulls him inside.

The TARDIS materialises on the Embankment by a row of shuttered kiosks and Mickey runs out, terrified. Jackie answers her mobile phone.

"Rose, Rose, don't go out of the house. It's not safe. There were these things, and they were shooting! And they… Hello? Hello?" She was just glad her mother was safe.

Rose goes over to Mickey, who is trying to hide behind a pallet. I stay in the doorway of the TARDIS.

"A fat lot of good you were."

"Nestene Consciousness? Easy."

"You were useless in there. You'd be dead if it wasn't for me."

"Yes, I would. Thank you. Right then, I'll be off, unless, err, I don't know, you could come with me. This box isn't just a London hopper, you know. It goes anywhere in the universe free of charge."

"Don't. She's an alien. She's a thing."

"He's not invited." I will not take anyone as useless as him. "What do you think? You could stay here, fill your life with work and food and sleep, or you could go anywhere." She could be my very first companion. I've liked what I've seen of her so far and I feel's she's the one.

"Is it always this dangerous?"

"Yeah."

"Yeah, I can't. I've err… I've got to go and find my mum and someone's got to look after this stupid lump, so."

"Okay. See you around." I was really upset that she didn't accept my offer. She was the first person I ever made that offer to. She would miss the chance to see the stars and I miss the opportunity to have my first ever companion.

The TARDIS dematerialises.

"Come on, let's go. Come on. Come on." She was really upset that she turned down the offer. She would have liked to go but she had too many responsibilities here.

The TARDIS materialises. "By the way, did I mention it also travels in time?"

"Thanks," rose said to Mickey.

"Thanks for what?"

"Exactly." Rose kisses Mickey on the cheek and runs into the TARDIS. Ready for another adventure with The Iris.


End file.
